Qualcomm Is Working on Eight-Core 64-Bit System-on-Chip

Apple has managed to leave everyone behind with the world’s first 64-bit ARM architecture system-on-chip. However, if the rumours about Qualcomm’s forthcoming application processor is correct, then the world’s largest supplier of chips for mobile devices may be preparing something that will blow away not only Apple’s A7, but even Nvidia’s Tegra K1.

Qualcomm is reportedly working on Snapdragon 810 system-on-chip that boasts up to eight 64-bit custom cores with up to 4MB of cache and up to 2.50GHz frequency. The app processor also packs Adreno 430 graphics core with up to 500MHz clock-rate, LPDDR3/LPDDR4 memory controller and various special-purpose hardware designed to accelerate certain operations. It is expected that Snapdragon 810 will exist in two versions: MSM8994 with integrated baseband capabilities and APQ8094 that will be lack them. The chip is rumoured to be made using 20nm fabrication process at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Specifications of the Snapdragon 810 imply that the chip will power extremely high-performance applications. However, MyDrivers and PadNews web-sites report that the chip is intended for mobile devices like smartphones, tablets and game consoles.

Both Apple A7 and Nvidia Tegra K1 integrate two Cyclone and two Denver cores, respectively. In case custom Krait64 chips are as powerful as Cortex-A57, then Snapdragon 810 should be considerably more powerful than anything which has been announced so far. Still, the question is how much power the new processor will consume.

Last year it was that Qualcomm was working on system-on-chips for servers. Those chips will power various micro-servers and will sport a number of special capabilities, e.g., server-grade memory controller, support for Serial ATA and/or SAS, integrated Ethernet and so on.